Typically, in-line skates include a boot or a shoe which is worn on the foot. The show is attached to a frame which holds the wheels in line. Bearings allow the wheels to rotate freely around the axles. The frames include wheel-receiving elements having a pair of arms for receiving the wheels therebetween. Typically, the wheel receiving elements of an in-line skate are rigidly attached to the frame. Even though frames are made of rigid and malleable plastic, this configuration prevents the frame from being sufficiently flexible during skating. Due in part to this drawback, a sideway movement of either the front or rear wheels often causes the skate to leave the ground resulting in the skater falling.
Improvements to rigid single piece frames includes a main frame body with a pair of longitudinal arms secured thereto to via a spring and a pivot in order to carry wheels so as to allow upward and downward movement of the wheels relative to the main frame. Other like improvements included bogeys pivotally mounted to a main frame and carrying wheels.
A drawback of the above briefly mentioned frames which include auxiliary wheel-carrying elements pivotally mounted to a main frame is that the pivotal movement is not smooth. Other systems provide a variety of complicated spring mechanisms for addressing the foregoing problem yet these systems are complex and costly and do not provide a sufficiently smooth pivot